Greed triggers gross vaccine inequality

Excellent study material for all civil services aspirants - begin learning - Kar ke dikhayenge!

Greed triggers gross vaccine inequality

---

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

---

• Poor versus Rich: Till date, only 1 in 500 in poor countries have got Covid vaccinated, compared to 1 in 4 in the rich world. That's inequality in action. WHO has documented it as well.
• Present status: As on date, 32% in USA, 27% in the UK, 2% in India and 0.3% in the Philippines got both doses. That is a very slow rate for a pandemic. And as all know, until everyone is safe, no one really is.
• What's the problem really: Corporate greed is the main trouble now. Just a few vaccine manufacturers are using patent protection to make big money out of public's desperation. The patents fall under WTO's TRIPS agreement, and are holding the world to ransom! [WTO - TRIPs - World Trade Organisation - Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights]
• Hoarding by rich world: It's not just Big Pharma, but rich world countries are literally hoarding vaccines for their population. The US has 6 crore doses of AstraZeneca vaccines, now being shared. The US FDA had not approved it for US use anyway. 
• Petition for IPR waiver: As India and South Africa petitioned the WTO for IP waiver on vaccine patents, the rich trading bloc of US, UK, EU, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, Norway, Brazil and Australia have opposed it. The developing world won't be able to scale up large-scale production.

1. Large pharma firms have petitioned President Biden to oppose the IPR waiver, saying it is without any evidence
2. TRIPs provides patent monopoly for 20 years

• Compulsory licensing: The exit option is via 'compulsory licensing', where developing nations in national emergencies can permit local manufacturers to use the patent technology legally (not being used due to fear of trade backlash by rich world). The Indian Supreme Court (SC) also spoke of this - Section 92 of the Indian Patents Act (under which such licences can be issued)
• Pfizer's bad deals: It claimed that India will get its vaccines on a no-profit basis, but it said nothing on patents. Some TV channels had earlier exposed how Pfizer had asked Latin American countries for military bases and sovereign assets as guarantees in exchange for supply of vaccines! Some countries did it, some refused. The firm's CEO (Albert Bourla) had been separately claiming that it will supply vaccines equitably and affordably, a double-faced performance surely.
• Public funds: These Big Pharma firms used a lot of public money to develop these vaccines. The US ran the 'Operation Warp Speed', spending $12 b on this research. The UK govt gave huge funds to Oxford University and Imperial College London. Oxford then had a licensing arrangement with AstraZeneca. Similarly, German govt. gave BioNTech huge support ($445 m), and Pfizer tied up with BioNTech. So private firms are minting money using patents, which were developed using public funds also.
• Bill Gates said no: The billionaire opposed sharing vaccine technology with India (and other developing countries) stating that they did not have the entire set of skills and resources to manufacture these. But that's false. India and others have firms that can use transferred technology well. The IPR waiver can speed up mass production of generics. The world needs it. Pfizer will earn billions in profits in 2021 alone.
• Summary: The world has failed in taming the naked greed of Big Pharma, even as millions die, and billions are pushed into poverty. Capitalism's excesses are killing us all.

Read more on - Polity | Economy | Schemes | S&T | Environment

Join UPSC Self Prep course | Online Course (PT Gurukul)  | Covid Special Course | Join PT courses

* Content sourced from free internet sources (publications, PIB site, international sites, etc.). Take your own subscriptions. Copyrights acknowledged.